The present invention is related to the processing of electronic transactions and, particularly, transactions for payment or authorization purposes.
Electronic shopping systems for allowing a shopper to purchase products without necessarily having to travel to a store are well known. An example of a contemporary electronic shopping system is a cable television shopping channel wherein products are advertised on television. A shopper merely watches the television and when an item is shown for which a purchase is desired, the shopper uses a telephone to call an agent of the seller to place an order for the desired product. Usually, a credit card number is given over telephone to facilitate payment for the purchased item. The purchased product is then shipped directly to the buyer.
There also exist interactive or bi-directional cable systems, allowing the purchaser to make selections directly from the television screen.
EP 1016999 A2 discloses an electronic shopping system which facilitates purchase transactions via a wireless telephone. The purchase transaction program is downloaded from the seller's server to the purchaser's wireless telephone via a program loader contained within the purchaser's wireless telephone. The purchase transaction program is stored in the program memory of the purchaser's wireless telephone. The purchase transaction program is used by the purchaser to facilitate the selection of items to be purchased as well as payment therefore. An external barcode reader is attached to the wireless telephone to facilitate the selection of items to be purchased and is controlled via the downloaded purchase transaction program.
JP 2003 141433 discloses a settlement method and a system having server device, an information terminal, an information processing method and a program therefore. The information on the purchase price of a commodity, an account for payment and the like are displayed on the first information terminal by a two-dimensional code. A user picks up an image of the two-dimensional code by a camera part mounted on a second information terminal, and the information of the two-dimensional code is transmitted to a settlement agency server from the second information terminal, whereby the purchase of the commodity by the user himself or herself can be confirmed and the settlement is executed.
EP 1513120 A2 discloses a method of initiating a payment process for products and the system for performing the payment process. A seller registers with an external device. A buyer has a mobile phone on which a program is installed which automatically performs steps of a payment process. The mobile phone furthermore comprises a digital camera and is in the position to build up an internet connection. The buyer has stored on the mobile phone several data required for the payment process which are PINs and TANs as well as one or more credit card numbers and the corresponding security codes. As soon as the buyer places an order, the seller automatically requires a transaction item from the external device. The seller transmits the payment amount as well as the seller identification to the external device. The external device generates a unique alpha-numeric transaction identification and transmits this transaction identification to the seller. Based on this transaction identification, the seller automatically generates an optical code to be displayed. The buyer photographs the optical code and extracts the transaction identification from the code and transmits this transaction identification to the external device. The external device checks whether the transmitted transaction identification is cleared. To this end, the external device compares the transmitted transaction identification with the database having valid transaction identifications which were sent to the seller earlier. When a valid transaction identification is located in the database, corresponding data relevant for the payment process are taken from the database and the transaction identification is removed from the database. Then, the external device transmits, via the internet, the amount to be paid and additional parameters to the mobile phone. Then, the seller clears the payment by an acknowledgement action. Then, the mobile phone automatically transmits an acknowledgement indication as well as data indicating how the payment is to be processed and the mobile phone additionally transmits a credit card number and bank data to the external device. The external device triggers the money transfer or a credit card debit action and, when the payment process was successfully completed, a confirmation is transmitted at least to the selling party, so that the selling party can hand out the purchased product. Then, the internet connection of the mobile phone is terminated.
Generally, such payment processes suffer from security problems on the one hand and convenience problems on the other hand. In typical applications, there has to be a trade-off between security on the one hand and convenience on the other hand. An extremely secure process is not likely to be spread in the consumer community, when it is extremely inconvenient for users. Then, any security advantages of such process will not convince the users to use this process, since it is simply too uncomfortable and too complicated. On the other hand, an extremely easy and straightforward process, which is very convenient for the user, will also not gain widespread acceptance, if the security of this process is heavily discussed.
Therefore, a useful process has to be safe, but has to be convenient for the user, and any inconveniences as far as they are required for ascertaining security have to be hidden as much as possible from the user. It is, in addition, believed that, when inconveniences are distributed to the seller, this will be more acceptable compared to when the inconveniences are placed upon the buyers. This is simply due to the fact that the buyers pay the money and, therefore, have a high power and, finally, decide whether a certain payment/authorization process finds acceptance or not.